Bullet For My Valentine - Scream Aim Fire

Welsh metal pin-ups deliver tricky second album…

Along with their Floridian counterparts Trivium, Bullet For My Valentine tread the modern metal path with great skill. The vocals are heavily indebted to Metallica’s James Hetfield, the shredding comes from the Iron Maiden school, the riff/drum interface is pure Pantera and there’s fists-aloft stuff à la Mötley Crüe. The teenagers love it, but we grumpy old gits over 30 tend to reject it as a load of rehashed 80s stuff – a redundant stance, as this is the new sound of metal, like it or not.

BMFV clearly don’t give a toss about people’s prejudices, stepping above the criticisms simply by delivering crafted metal songs that burrow into your ear and refuse to leave. Hearts Burst Into Fire is a perfect example, a prime-era Van Halen-style stadium anthem that is as much pop as is it metal. So is Say Goodbye, an angst-ridden wailathon with “MTV airplay” written all over it. It’s not all as memorable; the title track is nothing that Dragonforce don’t do better and faster, and Waking The Demon sounds like a self-conscious (and failed) attempt to attract the thrash metal crowd. It’s slick and pleasant rather than enthrallingly brutal, but it will take Bullet For My Valentine to the big time.

Sony | tbc

Reviewed by Joel McIver
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